Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1898 — DYING OF NEGLECT [ARTICLE]

DYING OF NEGLECT

Returned Heroes Tell Pitiful Stories of Privation. ° TEN STARVE ON SHIP tlard-Tack and Army Given Sick Soldiers on file Yucatan. "Transport Brings to Montauk from Cnba 200 Sick Regulars and Evidence of Somebody’s Mismanage-ment-Suffering of the Volunteers Dm to Red Tape—Thousands 11l at Camp Thomas and Fever Is Claim* ing More Victims Daily. Washington correspondence: Facts of the most sickening character -continue to flow in upbn horrified people in reference to the number and condition of the soldiers in the various camp hospitals throughout the country. It is impossible to deal with the subject in detail, so widespread is the evil and voluminous the story of suffering and horror. It is remarkable that some of the most horrible ■of these details should come from the camps situated in the heart of the States. From the following table a faint idea may be had of the extent of sickness and ■suffering among the soldiers. The tabulation is by no means complete and cannot be made so until compiled from army records, but is made up generally from the reports received from the camp hospitals. - Thousands of whom no record now exists, or ever will exist, have gone to their homes' on furloughs and are being cared for there. Hundreds of others are arriving almost hourly in the hospitals and ■camps of the North from Cuba and South■ern camps. Following is a partial list: Sick in Various Camps. Santiago 557 Philippines (estimated) '.. 500 Porto Rico 323 Boston 416 Massachusetts towns 342 New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine towns . ; 231 •Camp WlkolT 1,555 Dunn Loring camp 318 Fort Meyer Hospital 339 Washington barracks 263 Camp Meade 205 ■ St. Louis 176 New York City hospitals 138 ■Camp Mlles, Lexington 279 Chickamauga 2,500 Jacksonville 100 Fernandina .-. 125 Tampa 60 Camp Alger 100 Huntsville 25 San Francisco 467 Fort Sheridan 40 Total 9,059 One of the worst pest-holes seems to be .at Camp Thomas, on the site of the old battlefield of Chickamauga, which was chosen as the site of a camp of instruction early in the war on account of its supposed sanitary advantages. Here the number of sick, in hospital and outside, is estimated at nearly 2,500, while nearly as many hav.e been sent home to hospitals or their friends. Camp Wikoff is filling up daily with accessions from the troops returning from Santiago or Gen. Miles’ .army in Porto Rico. Loud complaints are made of the need of nurses and proper food, and yet it is not many weeks since -some of the officials of the medical department were protesting against the employment of Red Cross nurses, although they have shown themselves most efficient both at the front among wounded men and in the fever hospitals. The tales of horror which have been related by soldiers arriving on pest ships in weeks past were repeated Sunday, when the Yucatan got to the pier at Camp Wikoff, Montauk Point, and began to dis•charge the troops who came from Santiago. She had on board six companies of the Seventh regular infantry. The shocking condition of the men and the appalling scenes through which they passed •can be imagined from the fact that seven men were starved to death on the passage, and three more died while in the harbor before they could be landed, because the ship left Santiago without proper food or supplies for the sick or anything else but the regular army rations, “salt horse, sowbelly and shingles,” as the soldiers call the corn beef, salted pork and hardtack, which the sick were unable to eat. When the Eighth Ohio landed from the Mohawk Sunday, 300 were reported sick and were carried in ambulances to the hospital, but it was soon discovered that 170 of them were only suffering for food, and as soon as they had drank a glass of milk or two and had got something wholesome in their stomachs they were able to go to their camp. If the vessel had been delayed three or four days more the Eighth Ohio would have lost 100 men from starvation, for many of them had "been ill with fever and their stomachs rejected the only food that was provided for them. Before Secretary Alger left Camp Wikoff he ordered the surgeon general to send immediately twenty-four physicians nnd eighty more nurses to assist and relieve the devoted women serving as volunteers. who hnvc been working night and day, week after week, until their strength Is exhausted. Some of the Red Cross nurses hnvc not had their clothes off for ten daya, and there are no accommodations for them to rest and refresh themselves. The regulars who have returned from Santiago arc in excellent condition compared with the volunteers. This is isirticulurly true of the negro troops. They seem as strong and hearty as they were when they left for Cuba, although they have endured the same hardships and have eaten the same rations. This is accounted for by the ability of the negro race to endure hot weather and to resist miasmatic poisons. It is noticeable thnt thcaregular soldier knows how to live in camp and hpw to take care of himself on the march much better than the volunteer. He is hardened to hardships nnd exposure. He is accustomed to his rations, 'while the grout majority of the nave been fed oil their lives upon a different diet. ■ The experience of the regular has taught him to take enre of his health and to make himself comfortable by little tricks thnt the volunteer knows nothing about. This difference is very noticeable in making camps. Regulars camp quickly nnd take advantage of every opportunity to rest.

ALGER IS INDIGNANT. Says Conditions of Military Camps Have Been Grossly Misrepresented. Secretary Alger is indignant at the wanton misrepresentations of the conditions at Camp Wikoff, Montauk Point, and at the indiscriminate charges made against the department by people who take hb pains to investigate. To a Washington correspondent he said that the talk of exSecretary Sherman is an example of reckless assertion without investigation, for Mr. Sherman spent a week at Amagansett, only a dozen miles from Montauk, without going near it, but he returns to Washington talking about the horrors of the camps and the necessity for investigation and impeachment. Secretary Alger says that tie loss of life in battle and from disease is much less than was estimated by the most conservative authorities, when the army was sent into an enemy’s country, and to a place about which little was known, except that it was regarded as one of the most unhealthy spots in the West Indies. This army was brought home as soon as it could be. Montauk Point was selected as a detention camp for recuperation. It could easily be isolated and safely quarantined. Secretary Alger says that the camp, having been established for this purpose, will of course be abandoned when all the Santiago troops are able to leave and be mustered out of the service. But the report that it will be abandoned because of its unhealthy conditions is false, for the camp is in a very healthy location, ami men who come from the transports sick with fever and go into the hospital are discharged in a few days in comparatively good health. All the sickness at Montauk is brought there from Santiago, and Secretary Alger says it would be as reasonable to call the finest hospital in the land unhealthy because all its inmates are invalids. BOMBARDED WITH KISSES. Admiral Schley Retreats Under a Feminine Volley. When Admiral Schley visited the Navy Department the other day he expected to shake hands with his old friends and knew that he would be warmly congratulated, but it is doubtful if he was prepared for anything like the demonstration that took place. Brave Lieut. Pearson Hobson was kissed by a St. Louis girl at Long Branch, but Schley, the old hero of Santiago, who never lost his nerve when Cervera’s men were pouring volley after volley into the fleet, found himself cornered —fairly bottled up—in one of the corridors of the department by a regiment of fair women clerks. He withstood the bombardment of kisses for something like five minutes, and now and then found time to shake the hand of an old hero like himself here and there. And then he did something he never did before —retreated under fire. The kisses were too much for him, and he found cover in Qaptain Crowninshield’s office, where he met a number of army and navy officers, who were gathered there to pay their respects. CUBANS WILL DISBAND. Are Becoming Less Hostile to the American Army. Gen. Castillo of the Cuban army, at the invitation of Gon. Lawton, had an Interview with the American commander regarding the disbandment of the Cuban forces in the Santiago province. Gen. Castillo expressed the opinion that the dislmndment of the Cubans could be effected without trouble. He said that the hostility of the Cubans growing out of the refusal of the Americans to permit the joint military occupation of the conquerod territory, with the Cuban flag floating over the palace beside the Stars and Stripes, was disappearing, and, under the advice of cool heads. their scheme of making iyi armed demand for their alleged rights had been abandoned. LIPTON AIDS THE SOLDIERS. Contributes SIO,(MM> for Relief ofHikk nnd Wounded. 4 Sir Thomas Lipton, challenger for America's cup, and’well known philanthropist, has contributed 110,000 for relieving the sick and Wounded American soldiers. When Sir Thomas was in New York in June he expressed great solicitude for the sick American soldiers nnd sailors in Cuba. At that time he remarked thnt he would be glnd to assist them in nny way. The sl<i,<hm> demonstrates his | feeding toward the Americans.

BLAME THE OFFICERS. War Department Chiefs Deny the Charges of Mismanagement. The bureau chiefs of the War Department who are charged with incompetence or neglect in failing to provide the army with necessary comforts and proper medical attention are charging that the crusade against them is wholly without foundation, and that the newspapers are engaged in wholesale lying about them and about the condition of the men. They insist that matters are nowhere near as bad as stated, and that the privations complained of are the unavoidable incidents of every war. Quartermaster General Ludington deposes that the men had all the clothing they wanted and the right kind of clothing and a superabundance of blankets and tents. Commissary General Egan declares that the soldiers had more food than they could possibly use, and that if it was not always available the fault was in every instance due to the failure of the men themselves to take it. He insists that he should not be held accountable for the ignorance of the officers in not knowing how to get what was coming to them and their men. Surgeon General Sternberg proclaims sturdily that he bought medicines enough for everybody and that if they did not get where they were needed it was not his fault. Secretary Alger and all his bureau chiefs say that no complaints of inadequate provision for comfort or health were made officially, and the Secretary adds that he did not know of existing lamentable conditions until his attention was called to the facts by the newspapers. WHO STARVED THE TROOPS? Congressman Wants to Know Who Is to Blame. The terrible copdltion of the sick and wounded soldiers at the several camps scattered throughout the country has aroused the greatest indignation among the members of Congress. “I wish Congress were in session now,” said a member the other day. “We would soon appoint a committee to fix the blame. It is an outrage that soldiers should starve when the people pay millions of dollars to take care of them properly. Army contractors get rich, while soldiers die. We want to know and must know who starved the soldiers and neglected them when sick.” THOUSANDS ARE SICK. Appalling Distress at Guantanamo nnd Vicinity. Col. Ray telegraphs that the condition of the Spanish prisoners and the inhabitants of Guantanamo is appalling. Of the 7.000 Spanish troops there 1,062 are sick. Yellow fever, malaria and dysentery are the prevailing diseases. The sickness in Guantanamo is caused by exposure, starvation and the unsanitary condition of the place. The death rate is frightful, and the entire town will be wiped out of existence in a short time unless the ravages of disease are checked. Reports from other towns in that part of Santiago province surrendered to the Americans show that similar bad conditions prevail. CARELESSNESS AT CAMP ALGER. Army Physician ( It la Raid, Will Make Startling Disclosures. Dr. Shakspeare, Dr. Reed and Dr. Vaughn, who have been visiting and inspecting the army camjis, will, it is said, make some startling disclosures concerning tiie First divisiorh hospital at Camp Alger, claiming thnt for several weeks there was gross mismanagement on the I psrf of "home one in authority. They I found that the bed linen from the bods of I typhoid fever patients was put into the same wash with that of others, and thnt i many of the sick men were obliged to sleep on the ground. Scandia la off for Manila. The transport Scandia sailed from San . Frnncisco Saturday morning for Hono- ) lulu and Manila, carrying troops, suppliei and $1,000,000 for Gen. Merritt’s army, nnd also the balance of the New York | regiment for the Hawaiian Islands. A dispatch from Newport News says that work on our two splendid battleships Ken marge un<l Kentucky is bring rushed by day and night at the sljjpyards, a .<1 it is Expected that these two fleetest and best ships of our navy will lie ready sos I thalr trial trips before J: u. 1.